Warbird Information Exchange

GOOD GRIEF SPEEDY!
You actually defied gravity in one of Joel Eisenbergs ongoing corrosion experiments?? And over deep green water too! I remember watching them disappear hunk by hunk next to the old WEST COAST hanger area @ KBFI. Now that was a mixed bag of original customers in that pile of crap. I think AirlineFan.com has some AEROAMERICA pix.

Somewhere I think I still have a photo of my daughter (@ about 11) standing on a set of airstairs rolled up to one that had been given a 'left side' only to make it look like AIR FORCE ONE for some Kennedy TV movie shot @ KBFI.

Back in 1967 I rode a PACIFIC NORTHERN 720 to ANC in May and rode the same airplane back to SEA in very late Aug and it was wearing WESTERN colors. WESTERN ran the 720's almost into the early 80's and used their ex PNA L-749's in WESTERN markings into the mid 70's.

And, yes running the FE seat in a 707 was a busy job even on a trim run (how many on a show of hands have ever 'chased the mouse' on a JT 3 or 4), I was one of three people certified @ the MRO I worked @ as a QC to run the panel for a series of BURLINGTON EXPRESS 320-c's (scary, you could turn off the work lights inside the tube and see the hanger ceiling lights through the holes in the skins, one of my inspectors said walking in the main cabin was like walking on a waterbed the floors were that bad, the rep challenged one of my inspectors about a corroded stringer 26 in the forward cargo bay, my inspector told him 'when I can remove it with a minivac, it's corroded!). I still remember one poignant exchange between me and the kid on the ground who had never witnessed a dinosaur start 'ready to start 3?' "yep" 'Air in' "OK" (later, that same day) 'N2, fuel in' "OK" 'EGT rise' "OHMYGAWDWEGOTAFIRE" 'Is it still flaming?' "yes, maybe not so much now" 'front or back end?' "back end" 'is it out now?' "yeah" 'congratulations on your first JT-4 start, I've got the generator up on 3, you ready for #4?'

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

Pic from Fence Check of the Pan Am color on JT's Airplane....
http://www.fencecheck.com/forums/index. ... #msg282827

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Zane Adams
There I was at 20,000 ft, upside down and out of ammunition.
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Not that I am enamored with airliners...but if it flies...I'm interested....I like balloons, gliders, blimps, whirly birds, Cubs....heck a well made paper airplane is cool to me.
My wife thinks I'm weird...but I think I'm ok..

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Zane Adams
There I was at 20,000 ft, upside down and out of ammunition.
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Listen at http://www.warbirdradio.com

I have a shamefull admission.
Back in the 80s I was flying American from somewhere to somewhere on business. You couldn't see the airplane thanks to near windowless terminals and jetways. So I boarded what I thought was just another 727...back them I thought we'd fly 727s forever.
Awhile into the flight I pull down the window shade and the tab at the botton read "Super 80". OMG!!!!!
I had to read the emergency card to prove to myself I was in a product of Long Beach and not Seattle.

I was flying in an aircraft I didn't even know what type it was.
That's how jaded I'd become.
Instead of celebrating each flight, it was now a chore flying in an anonymous tube.

Thankfully, I recovered my senses.
True, jetliners are a bore, but I try to find something fun in every flight...even in an packed Easyjet Airbus.

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

Zane wrote;

And you wonder why people question your judgement !

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

Lots of publicity for Qantas this week, and lots of articles spelling it just as I have.

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Chris Mellor

These 'Pan Am' show guys.., ever hear of CGI?

They obviously used it on her tail.., why not on the rest of the bird?

Did JT do all the flying himself?

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S.

And if you're going to the trouble of putting a fictitious N-number on it, why not make it an accurate one ? Don't understand these Hollywood types and their 'consultants' .

And I imagine the owners of that 1956 Cessna 170 are wondering how their number (N1703D) was chosen ...

I recorded the show last Sunday and when I watched it last night, there were a bunch of promos for a story about a stewardess who was one of the victims of the Gambler's Special DC-3 crash that would be on the local L.A. Channel 7 news afterward - but I didn't record the news. Did any L.A. WIXers see it?

Edit: here's the link:

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?secti ... id=8412064

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)

They heard of CGI, then went to WIX (free consulting) and found out we just dont like CGI.....and decided to go for the real deal!

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Cessna 195

I guess you missed the weeks of us complaining about how inaccurate all their CGI work was then.

BTW, a lot of productions do this. They go all CGI at first until they are "stable" as a show and then start spending the money to get the real deal when they can. Prison Break followed this model for sure as did a couple others I'm aware of. With the way they do shows today (where they don't even order a full season off the bat) cost is a major concern so they minimize them until they know they're going to be able to have the money coming in to cover the expense of doing things like using real airplanes.

Is the paint job poster paint or wax?

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

If I owned that airplane (ha), I'd get the production company to paint the whole thing in the correct Pan Am colors and then keep it that way.

1) It was a vinyl wrap that they used according to FenceCheck.

2) Qantas has already paid Mr. Travolta a handsome sum of money to have it in the V-Jet livery. I think they'd be mad if he repainted it now, especially as the aircraft is originally a Quantas aircraft, not PanAm. - http://jetphotos.net/census/aircraft2.p ... =707-18740

Only other "correct" paint scheme for the aircraft would be Braniff Light Blue - http://www.planepictures.net/netshow.php?id=14106

It probably will come as a surprise to many, as Travolta has done his best to make the world think he's a four-striper, but his only 707 certification is as F/O, with a real, rated captain in the left seat.